The invention relates to a tape recorder and/or playback device for recording and/or reading on a multitrack tape.
In devices of the above mentioned type it is known to use a magnetic head to write and/or read tracks on a multitrack magnetic tape. A track is called a macrotrack when it bundles a plurality of smaller elementary microtracks. A magnetic head may comprise a plurality of active parts, each part being used to write and/or read in one microtrack at the time and the number of active parts being large enough to write in all the microtracks of a macrotrack simultaneously. An example for a device of the above mentioned type is a SDVCR (Stationary Digital Video Cassette Recorder) in which a stationary magnetic head is used to address all the microtracks over the whole width of the tape simultaneously (Reference 1: High-Data-Rate, High-Density Magnetic Tape Recorder Using Matrix Writing Head and Kerr Reading Head, J. C. Lehureau and J-P. Castera, THOMSON-CSF Central research Lab, Orsay, Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems, Annecy, France, Jun. 12-16, 1994, pp127-130). The active parts of a SDVCR magnetic head are usually arranged in a two-dimensional matrix within a surface of the magnetic head. The surface containing the matrix of active parts is typically obtained by polishing a multi-layer structure until the active parts and their magnetic gaps appear on the surface. Surfaces obtained by this method are substantially planar, therefore a problem occurs when one tries to bring in contact all the active parts of the matrix with their corresponding microtracks at the tape surface. The tape which is very thin by nature will tend to loose contact above the relatively large and planar surface containing the matrix of active parts of the magnetic head. To assure the contact between the microtracks and the active parts an airflow system flattens the tape against the planar surface (Reference 2: Head to Tape Contact Characterization for a 384 Tracks Fixed Magnetic Head, F. Le Texier, N. Blanchard, J-M. Coutellier, THOMSON-CSF, Electrochemical Society Fall Meeting 91, Phoenix, U.S.A.).
The SDVCR magnetic head is typically designed to address a relatively large number of microtracks simultaneously, e.g. 1024 tracks. The complex technology used to produce the SDVCR magnetic head may cause relatively high production costs. In addition the volume needed to incorporate an airflow system turns out to have drawbacks, specially when integrating it in a compact and perhaps portable SDVCR.